Albanese said that while she won’t present any eyewitnesses or physical evidence linking Nunez to Kolman’s death, circumstantial evidence will show “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Nunez killed Thomas Kolman over his obsession with the man’s wife.

Nunez was so lovesick at the thought that Linda Kolman was leaving him that he went to great lengths to break her and her husband up, Albanese told jurors. When those efforts didn’t work, she said, he poisoned Thomas Kolman with midazolam, a sedative used in dentistry.

“When everything else backfired and didn’t work, he took the ultimate step,” Albanese said. “This case is about one man’s obsession.”

She said jurors will see a plethora of emails sent from Nunez to both Thomas and Linda Kolman telling each that the other was having an affair, as well as an email from Nunez, pretending to be his mother, sent to Linda Kolman, urging her not to break up with Nunez.

Albanese said that in July 2011, when Linda Kolman tried to break up with Nunez, he threatened suicide and sent her emails stating, “I’m not leaving you, not today, not tomorrow, not ever,” and “I’m not going to just let you walk away from me.”

The prosecutor said she will show jurors a video of a white SUV, like the Nissan Armada that Nunez drove at the time of Kolman’s death, parked in the town of Ulster lot where Thomas Kolman later was found dead in his own vehicle. About 15 minutes later, the video will show Kolman arriving and parking next to the Nissa, Albanese said. The vehicles remain that way for about 30 minutes, she said, then the first vehicles leaves, but Kolman’s never moves.

Albanese said she also will present evidence that Kolman died of “acute midazolam poisoning,” that police found a search for the word “midazolam” on one of Nunez’s computers and that a witness will testify Nunez’s vehicle had a “specific defect” that can be matched to the one seen in the parking lot outside Planet Fitness in Ulster.

On the witness stand Wednesday, Kathryn Krom, the former general manager of Planet Fitness, testified that, according to the gym’s records, Kolman signed in at 5:48 a.m. on Nov. 28, 2011, but never signed in on Nov. 29, 2011.

A second witness, Alan Oxendine, testified that as he was leaving Planet Fitness in the early hours of Nov. 29, 2011, he noticed two vehicles, including one large SUV-type vehicle sitting in an isolated section of the parking lot. He said it caught his attention because they were in a place where “nobody parks.”

Oxendine said that in 2015, he told police the vehicle he saw that night looked like one he passed frequently on Ulster Avenue in Ulster, near American Cleaners.

Under cross-examination, Oxendine said he originally described the vehicle he saw in the parking lot as a Chevy Suburban.

In his opening statement, Shargel told jurors that nothing the prosecution will present will point to his client.

“Gilberto Nunez did not murder Thomas Kolman,” Shargel said. “They may not know what happened, but whatever happened to Thomas Kolman, Gilberto Nunez had nothing to do with it.”

The defense has suggested Kolman might have died of an overdose of a benzodiazepine.

Shargel said the prosecution won’t match the vehicle in the video to Nunez’s and that it has no physical evidence at all linking the two men.

Shargel said the pathologist who conducted the autopsy originally said several drugs were in Kolman’s system, but none in quantities that would have killed him. But after Kolman’s body twice was exhumed, there was “a sea change” in the pathologist’s report, Shargel said, and Kolman’s death was ruled a homicide due to “acute midazolam poisoning,” although the pathologist continued to qualify those findings, suggesting several other possible causes of death, including a heart arrhythmia, strangulation and complications due to sleep apnea.

Throughout the investigation, Shargel said, “they’re still guessing about what might have caused the death of Thomas Kolman.”

Though Kolman died in late 2011, it wasn’t until almost four years later that Nunez was charged with murder.

Shargel also said the amount of midazolam found in Kolman’s system was so minute it couldn’t have caused the man’s death, and he told jurors Kolman was found in a “peculiar manner,” fully reclined in the front seat, his pants undone at the waist, his zipper down and his belt unbuckled.

Shargel said that far from being on the verge of breaking up, Linda Kolman sent Nunez an 11-month anniversary card earlier in November 2011 professing her love for him. She wrote, in part, “I love you and will always love you” and “I had no idea 11 months ago that my life was about to change in the way it has, but look at us today, so much love and passion and compassion for each other,” the defense attorney said.

And, Shargel said, not only was Thomas Kolman aware of the relationship between Nunez and his wife, and in fact “approved of it,” Nunez and Kolman were best friends who talked of going into business together.

“There was no motive whatever for this alleged murder,” Shargel said. “There was no bad blood between Tom and Gil whatsoever.”

Besides murder, Nunez is charged with two counts of possession of a forged instrument for allegedly having a forged letter and a forged CIA identification. He is free on $1 million bail.

If convicted of murder, he could be sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison.

The trial is to resume at 9:30 a.m. Thursday. The Freeman will live tweet the proceedings at dailyfreeman.com

About the Author

Since 1990, Patricia R. Doxsey has been a reporter for the Freeman, covering politics, crime, and government affairs. Reach the author at pdoxsey@freemanonline.com
or follow Patricia R. on Twitter: @pattiatfreeman.